Alicia Vikander Is A Big Improvement On Angelina Jolie As Lara Croft

The Tomb Raider will arrive in cinemas in March 2018

The first trailer for the new Tomb Raider movie has arrived, alongside a video featurette where Alicia Vikander discusses her preparations for the role of Lara Croft.

Vikander is stepping into the sizeable shoes of Angelina Jolie to play the video game franchise favourite in the upcoming movie directed by Norwegian director Roar Uthaug.

When Uthaug previously spoke to loaded, he promised this would be the most physical Tomb Raider movie yet, with the director keen to take the franchise back to basics with practical action set pieces rather than anything CGI focus.

It’s an approach evident in the first trailer, which sees Vikander at the centre of several jaw-dropping action set pieces.

A Lara Croft origin story, which starts with the character far removed from the Tomb Raider gamers know and love, the movie also stars Dominic West and Daniel Wu.

The Hateful Eight’s Walton Goggins, meanwhile, plays the film’s chief villain, who may or may not be based on a popular bad guy from the original game series.

It any case, the new featurette highlights Vikander’s enthusiasm to take on her first major action movie role and her love of the Tomb Raider mythology, having first discovered the game as a child back in 1996.

The clip also highlights the grueling physical toil the Oscar winner went through to create a truly authentic looking version of the Tomb Raider.

It’s a far cry from the fun and flashy approach taken by Jolie in her two big screen Tomb Raider outings. Neither film has aged particularly well, having earned negative reviews on their initial release.

With Vikander’s Tomb Raider already appearing a lot rougher and ready and less CGI focused, this film already looks like a major upgrade on the previous two Lara Croft efforts.